Learning to Breathe
by Kylie18
Summary: Taking David and Erica out for a spin. Summary: Two young teenagers, fall in love, plan to get married and get an unexpected surprise pregnancy...only to have it all ripped apart when their daughter dies. Or does she?
1. Chapter 1

This is an idea I've had floating around for awhile, and I decided the only way it was going to work was to be an AU fic.

The entire back story will be told in flashbacks, of sorts. Anything in italics is a "flashback".

I'll do a slight disclaimer: I am not advocating teenage sex nor am I promoting it. It's a fact of life, and that's how its dealt with in this fic. That said, hope you like.

Chapter 1

"I'm so sorry for you loss, Miss Kane."

She nodded softly offering the man a complementary smile, "Thank you," She blew out on a whisper as moved across the room to take her seat.

"I'm sorry that we have to do this today," The man said, shaking his head as he walked around his desk, "Your mother made it very clear that she wanted this done after her funeral was over."

Erica nodded, shifting uncomfortably in her chair. She hated this, everything about it. She hated that death came and went and the world kept moving, at least for everyone else it did. For her time stood still. Left her in that moment, all those years ago when her heart was buried in the soft ground next to the spot where her mother now laid.

"Miss Kane?" The man said back to her, "Did you have any questions before we begin?"

She shook her head, pretending she heard him, pretending she cared, pretending that anything her mother may have left her in her will was going to fix what had been broken most of her life.

"Alright, well you know as Mrs. Kane's only surviving relative that all of her financial assets are left to you, which includes stocks, bonds, investments," The lawyer began, and Erica nodded.

"Yes, she and I went over this last year when she first got sick. I was under the impression that all of this was a formality," She said, a bit more bitingly then she meant too.

He nodded, 'Yes, well, there is something else, I mean your mother did leave you something else that I don't believe you've discussed."

"Oh?" She asked, raising an eyebrow at him, "I was told she and I had everything covered. All money and assets transferred."

He nodded and then swallowed back a hard breath before pushing out his next set of words, "I don't think you mother wanted you to know of this until after she'd passed."

"Know of what?" She asked, watching the man shake his head.

"Please, just watch the video, let you mother explain."

She shook her head, and opened her mouth to speak when he flipped on the TV next to his desk.

Her mother appeared a second later. She was sitting in her favorite chair at their old summer home in New York. She hadn't been there since…

"If you're watching this," Mona started softly, "Then I've passed and my Will is being dictated to you," Mona paused for a few seconds, leaning back in her chair. "I want to start by telling you how much I love you, Erica. How much I have always loved you. From the moment you came kicking and screaming into my world, I knew there was nothing I wouldn't do for you…" Her voice trailed off at the last of her words, and her face grew serious, "A parents job is to protect their child. Always do what they feel is best for them. Always," She pushed out, her eyes beginning to well with tears, "I know you're probably wondering what this about. Why I chose this place…" She trailed off, falling silent for a few minutes,

She wanted to scream back at the TV "Why did you mother? WHY?" Of all the places in the world why that one? She blinked back tears and shook her head, waiting for her mother to continue.

"Sometimes we do things, that at the time, they seem right….justified," She said, nodding, trying to convince herself as much as her daughter, "That last night that we were here…"

"Shut it off," Erica pushed out quickly, shaking her head, "I don't want to hear anymore."

"You have too," The man replied, shaking his head, "I know this is hard, but you need to hear what she has to say."

"I know you probably want to turn the television off and run away from this as fast as possible, I don't blame you," She breathed, "But what I have to say, you need to hear, you deserve to hear," Mona took a deep breath and let her eyes fall shut, as Erica fingered tears from her cheeks, her mind spinning as to why her mother was making her go through this, "You had know way of ever knowing this, but when you fought me that morning….because you so close to you due date and you didn't want to go into labor in the middle of nowhere…that you would go into labor that night. I made sure of it."

Erica gasped hard and breathless, the air in her lungs seeming to disappear as she struggled for a breath.

"That's why I took you to see Dr. Fulton that morning," Mona started, "I told you it was to make sure that you knew you'd be alright to spend the weekend at the cabin. That was a lie. "

"Oh," Erica gasped out through a gut wrenching cry, her tears falling hard and fast.

"He gave you drugs, that shot that you were told was part of a regular series, it wasn't. It was a shot filled with labor inducing drugs."

She gagged back a sob, and leaned forward, a painful cry sliding from between her closed lips, "Turn it off…please, I can't…" She begged through her tears. Her mind spun, racing through the events of that day, the whys, the how's, the ending result that until ten seconds ago she'd believed was out of her control.

"I know this is hard," The lawyer forced out, his own voice cracking a bit as he nodded, "but you have to hear this."

"It was all planned," Mona forced out, on the verge of tears, "From the moment you found you were pregnant, we starting putting it all together.:"

Erica choked back a gag, her lunch spinning in her stomach. Her entire body shook, and her tears flowed freely, as she tried to keep herself there, listen, understand what her mother was doing, why she was saying these things.

"David's family didn't want the two of you together anymore then your father and I, but you already know that. We let it go when you got engaged. There was no way a fifteen year old and a sixteen year old would ever make it to the alter. When you told us you were pregnant that next year, we couldn't…it wasn't like the wedding. You'd be tied together forever. Our families…our fortunes, all tied into each other with your child."

She did gag at that, her body wrecked with sobs and tears as she tried to keep it together, tried to hear her mother out. Tried to figure out why her mother was sitting there, telling that the pain she felt…the ache, the want, the loss…was all her doing.

"Vanessa and I decided that you couldn't have that baby. David would be eighteen by the time it was born, and we knew you two would never sign over your rights. So we had to think of something else, devise another plan…."

Erica pushed out a few shaky breaths, trying to pull herself together, trying to fall part, trying not to get lost in the pain. She was seventeen again, all of the sudden. Sitting on the floor in the middle of her daughters nursery…her daughters empty nursery, trying to will herself to take another breath, willing herself to keep going.

"The only way we were going to get that baby from you two was if you thought it was dead," Mona pushed out the last of the words hard and fast, trying to get it over and done with as quickly as possible. "When you have that kind of money, faking a babies death is easier then one might think." Her mother paused to fight back tears and Erica froze.

Her while world stilling, just like it had the moment in her room at the house on the lake after she'd woken up to the news that her daughter was dead. She blinked past a few tears, and drew in then released a heard breath, her mothers words just starting to float through her head.

"I had Dr. Fulton drug you. And we went to the cabin. Vanessa slashed David's tires, made sure that he didn't get any calls that night," She offered reflectively, "Dr. Fulton delivered your daughter. It was all routine, you would have never thought anything of it."

"Until he told me how much blood I lost," Erica blew into the room and at the TV the realization of it all beginning to set in.

"Until he told you how much blood you lost, that he needed to put you to sleep, keep you sedated while he tried to stop the bleeding. It was a lie, that's why David couldn't have been there, he would have known."

"Oh god," She forced out, as she fought for breath again. Her mind was still racing, trying desperately to put this all together, to understand what her mother was getting at.

"You went to sleep, and we…" Mona choked on the words, her eyes drifting shut again as tried to get the words out, "Vanessa, she took the baby. It was a quick transfer, she and I had already signed the papers. We told them you and David wanted to give the baby up, gave us your consent, but asked that we handle the rest of the details. You needed our consent anyway, so no one asked any questions."

Erica choked on her tears, and gasped for breath, the raw agony of that night still so fresh in her mind and heart that she could quell it or the this new betrayal, this new…

"You woke up and we told you the baby was dead," Mona finally pushed out, letting the words fall out hard and fast.

Erica drew in hard gulp of air and shook her head, tears staining her cheeks, "My…my…baby…"

"I don't anything about her adoption. The family. Any of that. That was Vanessa's area. All I know is that she went to a good home."

"Oh my god," She breathed, the words shaking as they slipped from her lips, "my baby's alive?" She wasn't sure if it was still a question of if sixteen years of visiting her daughters grave with teddy bears and roses was still to much to get past.

"She's alive. And a teenager," Mona smiled softly, "She's about the age you were when you had her." Mona's voice softened, "I imagine she's quite beautiful. She had David's eyes but her facial structure was yours."

Erica covered her mouth, gasping and crying, shaking forcefully as the words finally clicked in her mind.

"I know that Vanessa kept all the paperwork, since she's dead, I'd imagine David has," Mona offered, "Though, if what I heard was true, he probably just put them away and didn't bother to look at them."

"My baby," She breathed, as she swiped at her tears, "David," She pushed out a second later, "Oh my god…" She said the last of her words getting lost in a hard rush of air as it all hit her and the world went black. She vaguely heard the sound of her mothers lawyer jumping from his chair in an attempt to catch her before she fainted to the floor.

To be continued


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

She'd come to in her mothers lawyers arms not long after the video had gone black and her mother had finished telling her that the last sixteen years of her life had been a lie.

That the one defining moment of her life had been a lie.

Everything she'd done in the last sixteen years, every decision she'd ever made went back to that day. To the moment she buried her newborn daughter in the cold ground on a snowy January morning.

She still saw her daughters sweet face in her dreams. She had David's dark complexion. Her hair was dark and full on top of her tiny head. Her eyes, which had only been open for a few moments, were brown, dark and rich like David's, yet shaped like hers. Her facial structure was soft and round, lips and cheeks seeming like perfect blend of the two of them. Her nose was tiny and fit her face perfectly. It didn't seem like her or David's, but then that's what made her, her own person. She didn't think they'd officially weighed her but Dr. Fulton had estimated about six and half pounds and about twenty inches. She counted toes and kissed tiny fingers. Her daughter had been perfect. She'd listened to and felt her daughter's heart beat, watched her chest rise and fall, she had for the entire five or so minutes she'd held the little girl.

She'd let Dr. Fulton put her to sleep, so he could monitor her and work to control her bleeding, believing she'd wake up to find to find David sitting near her bed, their daughter safe and happy in his arm.

David…she sucked in a hard gulp of air and her eyes fluttered shut. Good god, David.

"Miss Kane," She heard a voice softly, "Is there anything I can get for you? Some coffee, maybe some tea?" The flight attendant asked, offering her a soft smile.

Erica shook her head and forced her eyes open, offering the woman a soft smile, "No thank you."

The woman nodded, "If you change your mind just push the button in the middle," She said motioning to the panel above Erica's head, before starting toward the next aisle.

It wasn't until they were in the air, that she realized where she was and what was happening. She was Erica Kane, and as soon as she'd called the airport enquiring about a flight from Los Angeles to London, they'd been more the willing to see to it that she was on the next flight out.

They'd gotten her on the last flight of the night. A 10:45PM non-stop flight from Los Angeles to London. She hadn't even gone home to pack. She hadn't thought to go home and pack. She'd driven to the airport in a fog. She'd collected her ticket and gone through security in a daze, her mind a million places, and none of them in reality.

She'd literally jumped on the first plane she could get on and was now three hours into her flight to tell David their daughter was alive.

Her eyes fluttered shut again, and she blew out a slow breath. She hadn't seen him in fifteen years. Not since their graduation ceremony. The last time they'd spoken was at their daughter's grave after the funeral. She'd been so cruel to him. Said so many things to him that she wished she could take back. There was so much she wished she could take back.

Her mind drifted, her thoughts floating off into the past. Into the mistakes, the love, the happiness, into the darkness and heartache….

They'd met when they were kids. He was eleven and she was ten. They were supposed to have hated one another, seeing as their fathers were business rivals and their mothers competing actresses. And they had, at least at first.

They'd met when both families chose to vacation at Blue Mountain. A gorgeous and wealthy lake town in New York. They're families had ended up as neighbors and had been forced to deal with one another; seeing as neither family was willing to end their vacation.

She and David had met a few minutes after his family arrived. She vividly remember laughing at him because he looked like mess from his travels. What she would later learn was a six hour flight from California and a three hour trek into mountains.

He'd stuck his tongue out at her and called her a stupid girl before kicking dirt all over brand new white dress.

A few days later, after he'd gotten some sleep and cleaned up, she'd realized he wasn't nearly as funny looking as she'd teased him about being. And he was nicer to her. They'd ended up being practically inseparable by the time they had to go, much to their parents disapproval.

He'd kissed her before they left. Nothing passionate or earth moving of course, they were only kids. He'd blushed and she'd giggled, and then he'd ran off to his families car.

She fell in love with him that day. It wasn't just innocent child love. She knew she'd marry him one day.

They met every year at the lake house for the next two years. They were best friends by the end of the third summer, and when he kissed her again that last time, she was twelve and he was thirteen and they didn't blush or giggle. He'd just smiled and mused how he was really starting to like doing that; that he might want to for the rest of his life.

He'd tell her a few years later that he'd loved her since they were ten, as if she hadn't have always known.

His dad died of a heart attack when he was fourteen and his mother had moved them across the country to New York. And he'd ended up at her high school.

She'd was by his side the entire summer that year, helping him through his fathers death. They laughed together. They cried together. They looked forward to the first day of high school together. And kissed, a lot.

He told her loved her for the first tine when he reached for her hand as they walked to their first day of high school together.

She was his girlfriend and he was her boyfriend and everyone at school that first year knew that they were meant to be together. Their parents, however were a harder sell.

David's mother, Vanessa, refused to let them spent time together and did everything in her power to keep them apart. Her own mother and father hadn't really cared, believing it to be nothing more then childhood infatuation, at least until she'd walked in on them making out.

In their defense, it was only kissing. And that's the way it stayed for at least another year. But to a mother who walks in in her child locking lips with any boy, let alone one who is the son of your biggest business rivals, you have to put a stop to it.

They were officially banned from seeing each other mid way through their freshmen year. Of course it was only words to them, and they continued to see each other as often as they could outside of school.

She was fifteen and he was sixteen the first time they had sex. People would always say it was David's idea, since it's never supposed to be a proper young woman's idea, but it had been hers, she'd bought the condoms after all. She told that she didn't understand what the big deal was. They loved each other, and they always would. They'd be safe about it and they would be sure to handle things like adults.

And they had. It wasn't like she got pregnant that first time, or even during their Sophomore year. There parents never even realized that they were having sex, at least not until she got pregnant.

He'd asked her to marry him that summer, right after he turned seventeen, and just before the start of their Junior year.

They'd driven out to the lake, the same one they'd first met on almost seven years before. He packed a picnic of pizza and soda. She'd laughed at how unromantic he was and teased that she should find someone else. He'd countered by asking her to marry him. She'd laughed and thought he was kidding. They weren't even through high school. His reply was to pull a box from his pocket and get down on one knee.

He told her loved her. He'd loved her since he was eleven years old. He didn't care if it sounded silly or if they were still just kids. She was the one he wanted, forever. He confessed to wanting to plan his future, but not knowing what that was or where it was going to tale him, without her next to him. She still thought he was crazy, but he was right, her future didn't have any direction without him by her side. She said yes a few minutes later. He put the ring on her finger and they kissed under the stars.

They were kids. They didn't stop, take a breath, but that didn't matter then. Back then they believed love really was all you needed.

"_They took that better then I thought they would," David half said, half laughed, shaking his head., his hand in Erica's as they exited her families home. _

"_What part of forbidding us to ever see each other again was good?" She asked, sighing. _

"_They've done that before, Erica," He told her, stopping, so that she would too and he could turn her to face him, "Hey," He breathed, watching her turn to face him, a few tears lining her gorgeous eyes when she was facing him, "what's wrong?" _

_She shook her head, "Maybe they're right," She breathed, "We are just kids, and legally we can't get married until we're eighteen anyway. Maybe we should stop and think this all through." _

"_Think what through?" He asked, shaking his head as he stepped closer to her, raising both hands to cup her cheeks, "So we plan a wedding for a year and half. We wait. I know I'm not going anywhere, and I know you're not. But I want usto know that after you turn eighteen, we'll get married, and go off to California together to start the rest of our lives. Like it should be." _

_She flashed him a watery smile, "I'm sorry, they just make me so mad." _

"_They don't think we'll get married," He told her, "They think they'll make us wait, drop hints and whisper in our ears about how we're to young and don't know what love is, hoping to break us up. They don't think we're serious." _

"_Do you think they could be at all right?" She wondered, "That we don't really know what love is at our age." _

"_I know that what I feel for you, is the most intense, honest and real emotion I have ever known. If it's not love, then I don't know what else to call it. I don't see how it matters if I'm eighteen or eighty, it'll always be the same." _

_She bit back tears and threw herself into his arms, holding him close, "I love you," She blew into his shoulder, "No matter what happens, I love you." _

Two weeks later and he was by her side when she got the results of the pregnancy test. They'd never had unprotected sex and the idea that they were among the fix percent who saw the condoms fail to prevent pregnancy.

"_We were careful," Erica sighed tearfully, her head resting against David's shoulder as they sat at the foot of her bed._

_David nodded, "According to the box, there is a five percent chance this could happen." _

_She laughed dryly, and shook her head, "It figures that we'd be one of those five percent." _

"_What's done is done," He added, softly, his voice still slightly lost to their shock, "We're going to have a baby." _

_Her eyes drifted closed, "At sixteen and seventeen." _

"_We're getting married in a year," He added, trying to reassure her, despite the fact that he wasn't any calmer about things then she was. _

"_I wanted to get through college before we even started talking about kids," She sighed. _

"_At least we'll have graduated before you're due," He offered, "I don't know what else to say," He said shaking his head, "I'm sorry," He said, "You do know that this doesn't change anything with us?"_

_She nodded, "I love you. I think I'm just in shock," She laughed lightly. "I'm not sure I know how to be someone's mother." _

"_I don't have any experience as someone's father either," He offered, a soft smile playing at the edge of his lips, "I hope it's just one someone…twins do run in my family." _

_She laughed aloud at that, despite herself and playfully slapped at his shoulder, "That's all we need." _

Vanessa mandated that they abort the baby. Her own parents seemed to support Vanessa's wishes, though they hadn't ever spoken the words. They were disgusted, ashamed, and horrified at the thought of being relatives. They were all crystal clear that neither of them could live at home if they insisted on going through with the pregnancy.

David had told them all to go to hell, grabbed her hand and they'd left her parents house, to never return. He found them an apartment a few days later, and they used the money his father had left him to move in.

Neither of them had been ready for what they were actually getting themselves into. They were teenagers, living together, planning a wedding, getting ready for a baby and looking into college's all while trying to finish high school.

She'd nearly fallen apart more times then she could count, but David had always been there to keep them going.

"_We can do this," He told her, his words slightly soft and caught in his throat, as he studied the sonogram picture in his hands. _

"_We have too," She breathed, in awe of the tiny image before them, "Isn't it amazing?" _

"_I'm around pregnant women all the time at the hospital," He started, referencing his volunteer work at the hospital, "And I've even been around a few ultrasounds, but when it's your own baby…." _

"_I wasn't expecting to see a real little person," She breathed, a soft smile playing at the corners of her mouth. _

"_I know," He nodded, "He or she has fingers and toes. You're hardly pregnant, yet, there is absolutely a little person in there," He said softly, laying a soft palm against the slight swell of her stomach. _

"_I think it's a girl," She told him, offering him her most enchanting smile. _

"_As long as it's healthy," He smiled, and she shook her head laughing, "What?" He wondered, cocking his head questionably at her. _

"_You're cute when you try and pacify me," She laughed leaning in to drop a kiss on his lips, "Every guy wants a son. You're no different." _

_He shrugged, offering her a sweet smile, "I actually think I'd like having a daughter. I kind of see a little girl as being the perfect blend of both of us. Your looks. My brains. A perfect little blend of our personalities." _

She gulped back a breath and squeezed her eyes shut as tightly as she could manage, trying to keep her tears from falling. Once they fell she wasn't sure she'd be able to stop them.

His words rang in her ears. She knew he loved their daughter. That he wanted her as much as she did. She never doubted him. She bit down on her lip, as she remember what she'd said to him that day, in their daughters nursery, what she'd told him at the babies grave site. She'd been cruel and hateful. She wanted him to hurt the way she did. She'd never stopped to see his pain too.

He'd probably never forgive her. He'd probably take one look at her, tell her to go to hell, and never hear her out. She wouldn't blame him, either.

Not this time.

**To be continued**


End file.
